1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to methods of reducing the instances of cherry picking in telecommunications networks. More specifically, with respect to telecommunications or other services, the invention relates to algorithms that minimize the ability of customers of the network to sign up for the most costly services between two regions of the network, while using other carriers or connections in place of low-cost services.
2. Description of the Related Art
Since the telecommunications industry was deregulated in the 1980s, a complex system of tariffs has emerged which governs the costs of providing telecommunications services (voice, data, video, etc.) to customers. Telecommunications service providers have attempted to simplify their tariffs by grouping nodes in their networks into zones or regions, and specifying a flat tariff between zones. However, in doing so telecommunications service providers have opened themselves up to the customer practice of “cherry picking” which is the practice of signing up for services that are the most costly to the carrier between two regions, and using other carriers or connections in place of low-cost services. Telecommunications services are often offered in “baskets.” As often occurs in grocery stores with a fruit selection for a basket, customers examine a telecommunications service in the proposed basket to decide if they wish to pick a particular service or services for their basket, hence the term “cherry picking” as used throughout.
Processes and algorithms exist in the art that divide up a network into n regions for multi-drop lines or concentrator placement. These processes are not designed to minimize the effects of cherry picking and, in fact, often produce sets of nodes for a network that do not even address the problems that exist when cherry picking occurs. So-called “greedy algorithms” in network design have been employed in the past, but not in the context of the cherry picking problem. Other approaches to the cherry picking problem involve adding nodes to the best regions of a network, but this solution does not ensure that the effects of cherry picking will be minimized. While it would be possible to design and publish a complete tariff which would overcome the deleterious effects of cherry picking, this would be a difficult and monumental task, would be almost impossible to manage, and would be extremely costly to implement. This also delays the ability of a sales organization to quickly price services, and slows the process of provisioning a network.
The simplest billing model is a flat-rate model. The United States (US) Postal Service (USPS) uses such a model for letters, for example. The cost for one ounce of mail is the same delivered anywhere in the continental United States, Alaska or Hawaii. The postal service is able to use such a simple tariff because they have an effective monopoly over the post box. Other, lower cost carriers are forbidden to use the post box or to deliver first class mail.
Telecommunications network providers are not so fortunate to have a similar type of monopoly. The network services business more resembles the package delivery business where the USPS, Federal Express, UPS and a variety of niche players compete for business.
When multiple carriers compete, there is a natural tendency for the customers to try to mix and match varying offerings to produce a lower cost solution than is offered by any single carrier. A simple example of this comes from voice networking. If a company has two locations with considerable traffic, it will purchase tie-lines, or dedicated trunks, that interconnect these locations. The number of tie-lines is a matter of trunk engineering and is straightforward. By purchasing only enough tie lines so that a 5% level of blocking occurs, customers will ensure a high level of use of these lines. By overflowing the rest of the traffic into the public switched telephone network (PSTN), the telephony costs can be dramatically reduced compared to an all leased line or all switched design.
In data networking an analogous situation exists when there are two services. Assume that a T1 leased line costs $500 and $1 per km per month within the US, while a T1-speed Frame Relay (FR) Permanent Virtual Circuit (PVC) costs $1,200 per month between any two points. It is fairly trivial to see that for short circuits—for example, New York to Philadelphia—customers will use a leased line while if they need a connection from New York to Los Angeles, the customer will opt for the FR PVC.
Given the telecommunications marketplace today, there are always a variety of rate plans in effect. Consequently customers are constantly searching for ways to rearrange their network to take advantage of tariff anomalies. Accordingly, there is a long-felt need in the art for methods and processes that minimize the effects of cherry picking for telecommunications network owners. The methods should be simple to implement, and have no effect on the current tariffs already in place. Moreover, the methods should be applicable to current networks that comprise a plurality of nodes and which can be partitioned into logical regions or zones that minimize the ability to cherry pick, and the effects of cherry picking. Such results have not heretofore been achieved in the art.